Positioning in the Context of Adult Learning and Participation

Abstract

Positioning dimensions, reflexive and discursive, present a portrait of learning and cognitive processes understood in the context of social participation. Reflexive positioning emphasizes self-identity and resilience for learning; discursive positioning underlines communication necessary for social interaction to bind people in a network. Communication that connects might also disconnect creating a condition for learning. An interpretive biographical study of 11 men and women living in a shelter using an inductive analysis of multiple data sources explored this presumption. One major conclusion suggested that when transitional residents face a gap in cognitive skills and the ability to use what they learned in social networks, the experience creates a condition for learning.